Tag Archives: linux distribution

Perl/Linux => Everything Perl. Yeah, It’s a Linux distribution where all the programs are written in perl. So if you’re a (that kind of) perl programmer who loves playing with various Linux distributions, then you may give it a try – may be just for fun (after all it’s not going to hurt, in fact, you may learn some interesting stuffs).

Here is an Screenshot (from official site (the project is hosted on sourceforge)), to get a preview of Perl/Linux.

Do you want to try Linux based OS on your laptop ? That’s really a good idea! (welcome to the open world of open source :)) but if you aren’t sure what distribution is right for you (it is obvious because you got a lot of options – a number of distros), then this post will guide you in selecting the best Linux distro for your laptop.

The most important factor in choosing a right Linux distribution is your primary task, because there is almost a dedicated distribution available for all type of tasks eg. video/audio/music/graphics production work, office work, common purpose such as surfing internet, Email, etc. Your experience/interest is the second most important factor, you should consider while choosing a Linux distribution for your laptop computer.

PCLinuxOS – Easy to use

PCLinuxOS is a simple and easy to use GNU/Linux distribution suitable for all types users. It is little bit like rolling release distribution (it doesn’t uses version mechanism instead of that the updates are pushed as soon as it’s available, which means that in one simple command you distro will have all the latest stuffs), initially derived from Mandriva Linux (2007). it uses KDE Plasma as default desktop (user interface/window manager), although XFCE, LXDE or Openbox editions are also available. So it is one of the best option for your laptop.

Puppy Linux – Light weight and Fast

Puppy Linux is the best option if your laptop is old because PuppyLinux is a very lightweight Linux distro and it’s very efficient at resource consumption, and of course it’s one of the fastest OS available. You can even use it without installing it on your hard-drive (as it can loaded into RAM due to its small size), right from a bootable media such as Pendrive or CD. It comes along with all necessary basic applications such as Abiword (Document Processing application like Open Office or MS Office), Mplayer. Due to its versatile nature and flexibility it is one of the most popular Linux distributions.

LinuxMint – a cool, Linux based OS for beginners

Linux Mint is another great option for newbies. Linux Mint (12 is the latest version) has been forked from Ubuntu but aims to make it more beginner friendly by including proprietary stuffs (Adobe Flash player, media codecs to play files e.g mp3). if you have any experience in Debian based distro such as Ubuntu, then you won’t feel much difference except one major change – Gnome 3/Shell, although Gnome 2 style user interface is also available but it’s worth trying if you have a decent configuration (otherwise you will be switched to fallback mode).

Want to try Linux Mint 12 (latest version, released a month ago) ? Before trying out, look at the Linux Mint screenshot Toor/Review (I’ve already covered earlier). Besides that I’ve also covered some more tips and tricks about Linux Mint, so come here frequently for more cool stuffs on Linux Mint (although most of the Ubuntu related posts will also work with Mint).

I’ve been an Ubuntu user from last three years, (although I had tried a lot of other Linux distributions – including Linux Mint, OpenSuse etc, but Ubuntu has been my primary OS). I’ve written this post to collect your experience/thought/opinion related to Ubuntu and Linux Mint (it’s not an Ubuntu vs Linux Mint debate)

In the latest version of Ubuntu – 11.04 and 11.10 (released last month) – a lot of things has changed. Some of the changes seems innovative, exciting and revolutionary but most of the changes are annoying and unnecessary, in fact some design related changes are just different without any advantages over the previous design. Anyway – it’s what I think, if you have some comment about the recent changes in Ubuntu 11.10, Gnome 3 or Unity desktop, then please share your idea through comments.

The frequent version release is another big problem with Ubuntu (in fact a lot of open source projects are the victim of version crap), stable version (which is achieved after a lot of bug fix) becomes outdated with the release of next version, the new and exciting features makes people shift to buggy – latest version and this continues. In other words –

stable version v is released
while(1)
{
Initially v is buggy and annoying
Most of the bugs are fixed in next few months
Now v is stable/usable/customized, but soon v+1 is announced with lot of exciting features/changes
We are looking for next version
v+=1
}

Linux Mint has been developed from Ubuntu and Debian based but it has some different strategy. It supports Gnome2 as well as KDE and XFCE. In later version(12) it will also supports Gnome 3 but you can still use Gnome 2 if you want – there is no compatibility problem. It focuses on usability and supports the things you expect. It is Linux based operating system, it is free of cost and available as an open source software – so you can customize it as you want. That’s why Linux Mint is now the 2nd most popular Linux distribution among desktop users.

Linux distributions are well known for its great compatibility with old hardware/computers. There are lot of Linux distributions available, which is designed to be very efficient at resource consuming, and any of them might be suitable for your old computer. These Linux distribution have some commonly used applications (such as light weight word processor, text editor, email programs, media players to play your music files) installed by default. Therefore, in this post, I’ll introduce you with a great Linux distribution for your old hardware.

Puppy Linux – The Best Linux distro for old computer

Puppy Linux is one of the most popular light weight Linux distro, known for its speed, efficiency and ease of use. Puppy Linux is well suitable for old hardware. Its size is very small – so it can be booted from RAM (then you can remove the boot media if you want) i.e you can use your computer even its hard disk is not working (also used as rescue disk). Some common media which can be used for Puppy Linux are – Live USB, Live CD/DVD, Hard drive, SD etc. So you can easily carry your Puppy Linux along with your data in pen drive. It is fun!

Features of Puppy Linux at a glance

Easy to use

Live booting

Fast

Carry anywhere

Small Size (~100 MB)

Efficient use of computing resources

it’s Fun!

Get Puppy Linux

Now a days, Linux based distros rocks! not only in server environment but also in desktop environment – for common users to accomplish common tasks such as Web Browsing, Document Editing, watching movies or listening songs, playing games etc. Ubuntu (11.04 – latest stable release; upcoming version – 11.10), A Linux based distribution (started by forking Debian) has a great role in making Linux more popular among desktop users (Although it’s a different fact that the share of Ubuntu is increasing rapidly in server market). This post explore about the gaming scope on Linux based operating systems, as a game player (or developer).

Linux based distros has always been criticized for poor graphics performance, up to some extent they are right but things have changed a lot in Linux environment. Now, Linux based systems such as Ubuntu uses Gnome or KDE like modern desktops which provides much visual experience than Windows or other OS, and of course they consume more resources; unlike the past when Linux users used to work with just a Terminal/shell, these-days also people uses shell (I use ssh for my VPS, because it’s far more convenient and efficient than a typical cpanel) but it’s not an absolute necessity for common desktop users. There are also some other reasons behind the poor performance – like lack of graphics drivers for Linux distributions (in fact most of the graphics card manufacturers or other accessories (e.g Logitech Webcam, There is no driver available for Linux distro, So I’m using generic driver provided by cheese which results in poor performance as compared to the performance on Windows, the same is true for graphics cards specifically ATI cards do not perform well on GNU/Linux) do not provide/update driver software for Linux distro because of the low market share).

Ubuntu : The best Linux distribution for Gaming

Why Ubuntu is the future of Linux Gaming ?

It’s the most popular Linux desktop (it has around 50% share in total of the Linux desktop users)

it runs on almost all hardwares and most of the graphics card run smoothly with ubuntu(as compared to other distro)

Ubuntu has huge number of users, community, blogs (it’s one of them :)).. for sharing, exploring and fixing problems & solutions

Some popular games are already available for Ubuntu (as a *.deb) while most of them (not available directly) run well using Wine.

Its popularity is increasing exponentially so in upcoming years the graphics performance will be better enough to migrate a gamer from Windows to Ubuntu…